About Me

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

My name is Anthony J. Yeung, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), and I’m passionate about fitness.

I love to read, I love to travel, and I love being a fitness nerd. Most of all, I love life and all there is to learn from it. Socrates said, “the unexamined life is not worth living.”

Amen, brotha.

The $1,000,000 Question: “Why Personal Training?”

Aside from “what nationality are you?” this is the most common question people ask me.

You see, I graduated Magna Cum Laude in Economics from a pretty damn good university, I was President of an undergraduate organization, and I made it to Phi Beta Kappa as a Junior (I was like one of six). So why, then, did I choose to ditch the amazing – and lucrative – world of finance for personal training?

It wasn’t for the money — that’s for sure. (If I wanted that, I’d still be working at a brokerage somewhere.)

It’s because I love it! When I learn about it or coach someone or write a program, it’s exciting. Hell, I listen to Gray Cook for leisure. I know not a lot of people in my industry feel the same way — and that’s okay.

Yet it explains how I’ve achieved so much in so little time. When I meet trainers, they always assume I majored (or mastered) in kinesiology or something related; not looking at supply-demand graphs like a happy Econ major.

They always assume that I’ve spent the last five years learning and training; not drinking soju ’til 6am or watching sunsets in a Taiwanese port.

And I take pride in that. And for my clients, it’s my responsibility to give them the best I can possibly give.

THAT’S why I chose personal training.

(I’m also Chinese, by the way.)

Fitness Writing

A few of my articles have been featured on popular websites including:

Humble Beginnings

It still blows my mind when people say, “I want your physique.” I was the least-athletic kid in high school: 5 foot 6, 100ish pounds and the strength of a potato chip. I played Varsity Golf – which was an excuse to cut class once a week – and had the shortest drive out of anyone of my team.

My 2005-self is not amused

I wasn’t off to a great start, let’s just say.

College

My dorm room was a five minute walk from our gym. Though I went pretty often, there was nothing pretty about my workouts — random-ass stretches followed by bicep curls, tricep pulldowns (with a cable rope, of course), and a lot of chest exercises. Legs? What legs?

During my senior year, I start squatting off and on — that’s about as close I got to strength training while in college.

Onward!

After college, I moved to South Korea for one year to teach English. At that point, I was probably around 125lb.

Korea made me do it

Sometime in the fall of 2009, I stumbled upon Stronglifts.com and Mehdi’s 5×5 program and gave it a try — my life was never the same.

I did the Stronglifts 5×5 program off-and-on through two years and five different gyms. I was so dedicated to squatting that I quit one gym in Korea — which was an 8-minute walk away – for another gym that had a squat rack… a 30-minute bus ride and walk away. I even trained at a gym in Sydney that was (no shit) a 40-minute walk away because it was cheap and had a power rack.

My body fluctuated, too. I was tired of being a skinny bastard so I went on a half-GOMAD diet and finished at 69kg.

New Beginnings

I took the leap and decided to pursue a career in fitness. It was a no-brainer: I loved it and could easily spend my life doing it. I interned at Results Fitness – with Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove – and learned ’til I passed out; it was unbelievable the amount of knowledge they had. Craig Rasmussen, Mike and Amy Wunsch… wow. (Then later on, Cameron McGarr.)

Those experiences gave me the drive and foundation I needed.

To Be Continued…

Apparel

I also run a clothing company, Ikigai, with my buddy, Garry Hannah. We specialize in simple and beautiful designs on high-quality materials.